Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I've wanted to get hold of SERPENT WARRIORS for quite some time but every time it's on eBay some creep always snatches it up in front of my eyes but now, NOW, FINALLY, here it is. On Danish video even! I never even knew it was out in this cold and godforsaken place (i.e. Denmark) that I'm at. All along I've been trying to find a copy of the Greek tape. This scan is the Norwegian one but the Danish is exactly the same, apart from the text, obviously. The thing about SERPENT WARRIORS is apparently it re-uses a lot of footage from the nasty Hong Kong horror movie CALAMITY OF SNAKES!! Can't wait!(thanks to Dag-Johnny)

Monday, September 29, 2008

It's with great sadness I bring you this article from Andrew Leavold's blog. It was first printed in "The Philippine Daily Inquirer". No more post-apocalypse films. No more Filipino trash from Cirio. RIP.

The PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER has reported the death of Filipino exploitation master Cirio H. Santiago, best-known as the line producer of New World Pictures' popular WIP quartet of THE BIG DOLL HOUSE, WOMEN IN CAGES, THE HOT BOX and THE BIG BIRD CAGE (the first and last of which were directed by Jack Hill). As a director, Santiago was also responsible for such legendary '70s drive-in fare as T.N.T. JACKSON (scripted by Dick Miller), COVER GIRL MODELS, FLY ME, VAMPIRE HOOKERS and FIGHTING MAD. The DAILY INQUIRER report, written by Marinel Cruz, reads as follows:

Filmmaker and producer Cirio Santiago, who award-winning Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino considers a big influence and inspiration, died Friday night of complications from lung cancer. He was 72.

Santiago, who was diagnosed early this year, was pronounced dead at 11:50 p.m. at Makati Medical Center. His doctors declared respiratory failure as the immediate cause, his sister Digna, an official of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, told the Inquirer by phone on Saturday.

Like Cirio, Digna is a film producer for the family-owned Premiere Productions.

At the time of his death, Cirio was chair of the Laguna Lake Development Authority.

Cirio’s son Cyril died of testicular cancer six months ago, said Digna. “Cirio became very depressed.”

She said her brother was taken by ambulance to the hospital on Sept. 18 after he complained of difficulty breathing. “His family learned of his condition in March, after his son, Cyril, was buried,” Digna said. “He didn’t even tell us, probably because he didn’t like too much attention.”

He is survived by wife Annabelle; children Christopher, Cathy, Claudine and Cirio Jr.; and siblings Digna and Danilo.

Cirio was cremated on Friday. A Mass will be held tomorrow, 10 a.m., at Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati.

Cirio, who also used the screen name Leonard Hermes, was chair emeritus of Premiere Productions. In 1995, he was president of the Philippine Film Development Fund.

In 1960, he was one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines, for Movies.

Among Cirio’s better-known films were T. N. T. JACKSON (1975) and FIREHAWK (1993). In the 1980s, he made low-budget Vietnam war movies, working with American producer Roger Corman and directors Jonathan Demme and Carl Franklin.

Several of these B-movies have become cult favorites, cited by such “renegade” Hollywood filmmakers as Tarantino. During his first visit to the country last year, Tarantino sought a meeting with his two “idols,” Cirio, and Filipino director, Eddie Romero. Tarantino proudly announced that he had based some of the characters in his iconic film, KILL BILL, on those in Cirio’s earlier movies.

At the time of his death, Cirio was filming ROAD WARRIORS [sic, actually ROAD RAIDERS], produced by US-based 147 Productions, as the sequel to his [1983] sci-fi flick STRYKER. He was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film Academy of the Philippines next month.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

My god!!! News practically keep coming in as we speak!!! Yesterday, I reported how Ian F (over in NJ) by accident has found the whereabouts of Peter O'Brian and now I have discovered that there is indeed ANOTHER Rambu film over in Indonesia!! It's insane!!

When they shot the ordinary film (well, ordinary to everyone outside of Indonesia/Malaysia) Parkit Films also produced a different version for the local Indonesian market!! And here I was thinking RAMBU was already very Indonesian!! So what they did was they double filmed all the scenes with Peter O'Brian in them WITH AN INDONESIAN actor playing O'Brian's part!!! I made the discovery as I wanted to re-read the comments to the film intro that someone posted on YouTube but instead I found what appeared to be the same intro... but wasn't. Well, I guess it is... just with the other actor in it. LOL.

Here's the intro to the original International version of RAMBU, under the title of THE INTRUDER (it's from the Greek vhs):

And here's the intro to the Indonesian version of RAMBU, under the title of PEMBALASAN RAMBU (I assume it's from the Malay VCD):

I must admit I think the Indonesian guy playing the Rambu character looks like a piece of wet cardboard compared to Peter O'Brian! He doesn't resemble Rambo in the least bit!! Wasn't that the whole point of the movie!! ha ha.

However, having said that, I would of course LOOOOOVE to watch the Indo version. Obviously, I did try and find the VCD but none of the online stores that I know of has it. I must have googled for at least a couple of hours but came up with zilch. Well, nothing except this photo from (what I think is) a Malaysian website of someone holding the Malay VCD release in his hand (a guy who is in a baaad need of having his finger nails cut, LOL):

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Yes, it's true!!! My mate over in the States, Ian F., has found PETER O'BRIAN the star from one of the most enjoyable Info... pindo... mouth won't work... can't talk now... one of the most enjoyable INDO movies ever: RAMBU (aka The Intruder, original title: Pembalasan Rambu)!!! And he is still living in Indonesia!!!

More info later... but... phew!!! This is amazing!!!

Peter O'Brian is apparently an English teacher in Indonesia now and one of the students sent Ian this picture:

Argh, DEAD MAN'S SHOES directed by Shane Meadows is great! Fantastic! Great! You should get it! Probably thee best British film since, like, forever!!! The director also did THIS IS ENGLAND which I'm getting next (along with MADE IN BRITAIN but that's beyond the case. And yet it's not!).

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Thursday, September 18, 2008

I was at a book store the other day and found this pretty interesting book called "Forbrydersker og offentlige fruentimmere 1863-1919" which is basically 400 pages of police mugshots of women on the edge of society in Denmark a bit over a century ago. The book contains a short introduction about these women who turned to a life of crime which is then followed by tons of pages of police photos from the women's arrest. Most of them were arrested due to a then very different society with absolutely no safety net. Well, unfortunately that's still how it is in many places around the world. Some of the women were obviously genuine criminals but many of them were just trying to pull thru, and a hundred years ago that didn't mean pull thru in style - it was simply a matter of survival.

Under each mugshot is listed the reason for their being arrested and the sentence they were given. A lot of the women were arrested for theft (often food) or selling stolen goods. However, there's also quite a few who were sentenced due to sexual circumstances. One 17 y.o. girl was given a two month sentence for having had sex with her step-dad in 1889. The step-dad was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment! One woman was trying get her insurance money any way she could. She would report burglary and repeatedly tried to burn down her own house. Problem was just someone discovered the fire and put it out every time, haha.

I haven't read thru all of it yet but the probably most bizarre case was one woman who was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment because she had a incestuous relationship with her two adult sons!! We are not talking about a single incident that might have occurred under the influence of strong alcohol; This went on from the end of the 1880s and thru to 1906!! That's 16+ years!!! One of the sons was so retarded he wasn't able to work. When she was given the sentence in 1907 she was around 60 years old. I ought to have a stunned smiley here. Another tragic case was a women who successfully aborted her pregnancies five times but the sixth time she didn't succeed and so instead she strangled her kid!It's a very... I was about to say "cool" book but it's not cool, it's a good book. Apart from the interesting part about their crimes it also gives you a rare chance of seeing what people (or at least women) looked like in those days. Ordinary people I mean. One reviewer mentioned that you don't see a single smile in the entire book. At the most you see someone with an expression that seems to be saying: "Yeah whatever!" But as interesting and fun as the book is I can't help feeling sorry for most of these women. Yeah sure, the woman who kept torching her own house is fun when you read about it but she probably didn't do it cos she was wild and crazy and listened to rock'n'roll but because she was down on her luck.

They didn't deserve to live bad lives but they did. So many people did in those days and today we can't even begin to fathom how poor people were or how miserable their circumstances were. No money, no showers, no education, not being able to read or write, no money for the doctor's, and medical help was pretty crappy anyway, no help in regards to v.d. (the book covers prostitutes as well), no one was on the dole cos there were no jobcentres. Last month I ran out of money about a week before payday because I bought too many damn video tapes and stuff and I couldn't buy food or anything so I had to rely on my pantry stock. I thought it was pretty tough and IT'S NOTHING compared to what those women went thru. So many people in my neck of the world complain about how terrible things are these days. My comment to them all is Fuck off, you know nothing! You have great lives compared to these poor souls 100 years ago.

I recommend the book very highly although it's a bit pricey retailing around $34 (which would probably have fed your entire family for a whole year back then). It's out on "Forlaget Palle Fogtdal" publishing (2008).

Above: Birthe Marie Olsen who was sentenced to life for having performed 5 abortions on herself and for strangling her baby when the 6th abortion didn't work out.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I've mentioned a couple of other THE EXORCIST rip-offs before and tonight I watched yet another one, this time from Germany of all places: MAGDALENA, POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL (1974) (aka Devil's Female / Beyond the Darkness / Magdalena, vom Teufel besessen) on bootleg dvd from Trash Palace. I expected it to be fairly okay but it turned out to be totally entertaining!! Recommended. Oh, and it was banned in Finland!

About Me

Latest post in Gibberish:

Comments from members of the Jack J cult:

Huh?

The blog title is my original 'Greek' language title for this blog. I tried with a couple of English titles but they read flabby so I decided to keep the original title even though most of you won't understand it. But, hey, it'll add an exotic spice to it! English translated titles could have been: Reflections of a Hitman, Diary of a Hitman, A Hitman Looks Back, or Memoirs of a Hitman.